When it comes to cheese Juliett Harbutt from England starts to swarm. To name her a cheese lover would be too narrow. She is a cheese fanatic and one of the main experts in the world. She is a food journalist, author of several ward-winning cheese books and founded the British Cheese Awards.

At the Paris Cookbook Fair in March she wants to open the palate of the audience for cheese from Britain.

In the Gourmand Magazine she explains why British cheese should capture the markets around the world.

 

In Paris you will do a parallel tasting of cheese from Britain and from France. What is your target - to show that British cheese is as good as French?

Juliet Harbutt: "I want to dispel the myth that only France can produce amazing and wonderful artisan cheses. In fact in the last 20 years there has been an explosion in the number and diversity of british artisan cheses."

 

If you think about it, it is no surprise that a country like England with many farmers produces good cheese.

Juliet Harbutt: "Britains problem was a combination of the industrial revolution taking over production of the traditional hard British cheeses like Cheddar, Lancashire and Red Leicester and two world wars which decimated the dairy industry. Before the first world war there was something like 3,000 cheese makers and many regional cheeses by the end of the 2nd world war there were less than 300 farms producing cheese."

 

Everyone knows stilton, which other cheeses from Britain are remarkable?

Juliet Harbutt: "In fact in the UK we now make more than 70 different blue cheeses including one made with buffalo milk and more than 10 blues made with sheep or goats milk. Plus we have the only square blue cheese in the world - Blue Monday. There are also over 140 goats milk cheeses and over 60% of the cheeses made are made with raw milk!"

 

Especially in France and Germany the British cuisine or the whole British culinary heritage have no good reputation. What is the reason for this and will it change?

Juliet Harbutt: "In fact the reputation of British cuisine is already changing and most of the young, innovative chefs from the New World and Europe are coming to England to train under the English chefs they have read about and who have such great reputations abroad - like Mark Hix, Peter Gordon, Heston Blumenthal, Rick Stein, Gordon Ramsay, Emily Watkins even Jamie Oliver and 100‘s more and the food in many of the English pubs is like the tradtional cafes of France used to be."

 

What is in general the fascination of cheese?

Juliet Harbutt: "When I started the British Cheese Awards in 1994 there were around 250 differnt cheeses made and barely 100 artisan cheesemakers. In 2010 we had over 900 British cheese entered in the British Cheese Awards that means Britain now makes MORE cheeses than the French! And what makes them fascinating - the people who make them, the animals and the grazing that give them their unique character and their almost infinite taste and aroma - what is there not to like!"

 

Which cheese do you like best?

Juliet Harbutt: "To ask me which is my favourite cheese is like asking someone which is their favourite child - it is impossible to say. What i will say however is that if I never tasted an artisan Roquefort, Vacherin, Brie de Meaux or Ossauy Iraty again my life would be significantly less full but then I could not imagine life without Parmigiano Reggiano, Gorgonzola, Cheddar, Manchego, Jasper Hill Blue, Blue Monday, Cornish Yarg, Lords of the Hundreds..."

Don´t miss her:

In Paris Juliet Harbutt will also present her current book "Wine and Cheese: The Essential Reference Box A Complete Guide to the World of Wine and Cheese in Two Illustrated Encyclopedias with 900 Photographs". The book is nominated for a Gourmand „Best in the World Award".